$8b lng project allotted 270ha diversification will benefit gladstone

CHINA Bay was barely visible across the harbour as the ink dried on the contract, sealing a land deal that moved the establishment of a liquefied natural gas plant a step closer to construction.

Queensland Gas Company (QGC) a BG (British Gas) Group business and Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas and QGC's senior vice-president, growth, David Maxwell signed the deal which released about 270 hectares of Curtis Island near Gladstone for the plant's construction.

The deal may have been signed under threatening skies and in the shadow of troubled global industrial giant Rio Tinto Alcan Yarwun's alumina refinery but the mood from the signatories was definitely upbeat.

The Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas (QCLNG) plant plans to be exporting 12 million tonnes of LNG from its island base in four years' time.

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THE Deputy Premier said QGC expected the $8 billion project would create more than 3000 jobs at the peak of construction and about 800 ongoing jobs subject to state and federal government environmental approvals.

“Nearly 50 per cent of these jobs will be in Gladstone at the processing end,” he said.

“The rest will provide work for people in the Surat basin where the gas will be extracted and transported by underground pipeline to the coast,” he said.

“Gladstone will benefit from diversifying and adding to its strengths like coal and aluminium.

“In tough economic times, a broader business base will make the local economy more resilient and provide security for workers.

“The LNG industry could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the state economy every year from royalties and taxes.

“But this land contract will only be finalised if numerous conditions are met, including environmental assessments.”

QGC's Mr Maxwell said yesterday's signing was a milestone.

“We are well advanced on front-end engineering and social impact assessment in Commonwealth and Queensland legislation,” he said.

“And we have made significant steps in the gas fields to prove up the reserves we require for this development.

“We are on track to achieve the timetable we laid out a year ago and to make a final investment decision by early 2010. “Across the BG Group, including our offices in the United Sates and the United Kingdom as well as QGC business in Queensland, we have more than 300 people working on the QCLNG project and we expect more by year's end.”